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Building Businesses, Rebuilding Lives: A Holistic Approach to Supporting Refugee Entrepreneurship
For refugees, running a business is often a big part of their efforts to rebuild their lives. Jacinta Mutie, Paul Karanja and Patrick Guyer at RefugePoint share learnings from RefugePoint‘s comprehensive refugee entrepreneurship support initiative, exploring how the program provides refugees with the stability, business skills and funding they need to move themselves and their households along their path towards self-reliance.
- Categories
- Education
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Empowering the Underserved: A New Report Highlights the Impact of Off-Grid Energy Solutions — And Some Emerging Challenges
Up to 674 million people living in the world's most vulnerable communities are projected to remain unelectrified by 2030. According to Kat Harrison at 60 Decibels, the off-grid sector could reach these customers, if these energy businesses and organizations are given the right support to successfully scale. She shares insights from a new 60 Decibels report, based on interviews with 79,000 energy customers in over 30 different countries over the last three years, which highlight some adjustments the sector could make to reach hundreds of millions of excluded customers.
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Women Sales Agents are the Key to Last-Mile Distribution: Here are Four Ways to Maximize Their Impact
Many development and entrepreneurship programs around the world have engaged women sales agents as last-mile distributors, as their involvement can advance multiple business and impact goals. But as Shihab Uzzaman and Trisha Clauson at Bopinc point out, though some of these initiatives have succeeded, many have failed. They share four key practices Bopinc leveraged in a last-mile distribution project in Bangladesh that can boost the performance of other businesses and programs that enlist women sales agents in their distribution efforts.
- Categories
- Social Enterprise
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Report: The Capital Women Need, for the Future We All Need
Melinda French Gates pens the foreword to a new paper that addresses the need to expand access to affordable credit for women entrepreneurs in the Global South.
- Categories
- Finance
- Region
- Global
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Private Business Alone Can’t Bring Energy to the Last Mile: Why Philanthropy Should Shift its Focus to Scalable Non-Profit Models
Africa is home to countless failed pay-as-you-go energy businesses that couldn't sustain themselves after their grant funding dried up. According to Aneri Pradhan at New Energy Nexus, this highlights the shortcomings of market-led approaches to last-mile energy access across the continent. She argues that philanthropic funding has largely failed to create sustainable energy businesses in these communities, as customers cannot afford clean energy at their current income levels. Instead, she encourages funders to support non-profit models that have proven their ability to reach these communities at scale.
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Entrepreneurs in Africa Win $400,000 to Fight Poverty
Inaugural FINCA Ventures Prize Competition Supports Women and African Entrepreneurs.
- Categories
- Investing
- Region
- Sub-Saharan Africa
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Accelerating Africa’s E-Commerce Revolution: A SaaS Solution Leverages Payment and Logistics Innovation to Unleash the Continent’s Entrepreneurial Potential
Africa’s e-commerce landscape is in the midst of an ongoing revolution, as the growth in internet access has enabled businesses across the continent to sell their products locally, regionally and globally. Moulaye Taboure at ANKA explains how his company is leveraging “Software as a Service” (SaaS) innovation to connect these businesses with consumers, while providing payments and logistics services geared toward their unique needs. He shares highlights from a recent ANKA whitepaper that outlines key trends and developments in African e-commerce.
- Categories
- Finance, Technology
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Breaking Barriers, Building Futures: How Supporting Women-Led MSMEs Can Boost Empowerment and Drive Job Growth in India
Small businesses — especially women-led micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) — are emerging as pivotal drivers of economic growth in India. According to Umesh Singh at Tara Candles, these MSMEs can play a key role in boosting employment — but to do so, they’ll require more support. He explores how women-led MSMEs are creating jobs and promoting inclusive growth, and discusses how the government and other stakeholders can help women entrepreneurs overcome the challenges they face in starting and running a business.
- Categories
- Education
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